


Vibrations

by aquaexplicit



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Cisco's Powers, Everyone Sees Harrisco Is Endgame, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Post-Season 2, Pre-Slash, Reverb Was Into His Earth-1 Self, Team Flash Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 16:44:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10598061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquaexplicit/pseuds/aquaexplicit
Summary: “Reverb was undressing me with his eyes. Also.” Cisco pauses for dramatic effect. “He kissed me.”Barry and Caitlin half choke on their drink. Jesse leans in even further, eyes wide and bright. Cisco glances at Harry, who barely reacts at all. He frowns. That’s no fun.“He did not kiss you,” Harry says.“Okay. No,” Cisco admits. Jesse sighs in disappointment and slumps in her seat. Harry spares her a glance. “But he totally would have."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Reverb was totally vibing on Vibe and no one will convince me otherwise.
> 
> [UPDATE: PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS LOVELY AND INCREDIBLY SWEET AESTHETIC CREATED BY WOULDYOULIKEACUPOFTEADEAR. IT'S SO PRETTY. IT'S SO PRETTY YOU GUYS.](http://wouldyoulikeacupofteadear.tumblr.com/image/168831724372)

Team Flash celebrate Harry’s and Jesse’s decision to remain on Earth 1 with Thai food and high octane rum. Caitlin mixed the alcohol to bring Barry along with their buzz. Cisco thinks it could also serve as a hell of an accelerator the next time they need to blow something up.

“I want to hear more about Cisco-2,” Caitlin says.

Cisco can’t pinpoint when Earth 2 and their doppelganger-selves became the subject of conversation. They never discussed it much, even when Caitlin first found out about them. Somehow over the course of the evening’s meal and booze and free happy feelings, it’s come up. Harry’s even answered the questions he hasn’t deemed hazardous to the balance between earth's.

“Reverb,” Barry slurs, momentarily enjoying the inebriation of Caitlin’s drink. He blinks, eyes going clear, and they can see it’s over.

“Vibe’s better,” Caitlin comments.

“Obviously,” Cisco says. He smiles into the warm fuzz of alcohol, feeling pleasantly pliant and flushed. “I’m starting to think I’m the only person in the multiverse who should be allowed to give nicknames.”

“I don’t know,” Jesse says. She takes a sip of her virgin Mai Tai, which Harry mixed personally, overprotective as ever. “I thought Reverb was pretty clever. I think he gave Killer Frost and Deathstorm their names, too.” 

“Aw,” Caitlin says.

“No, that is not aw. There was nothing aw about any of them, especially not Mirror Me. He was the actual worst.” 

“Yes,” Harry agrees dryly. “Much worse than the speedster who terrorized my city and was planning to destroy every planet in the multiverse.”

“He wore his hair in a half pony tail,” Cisco reminds him. “Like he’d kidnapped Ariana Grande’s personal hair stylist. And he was wearing guyliner. I don’t know when that was phased out of existence on Earth 2 but here, that trend died in 2010. The worst part was that he thought he looked _so cool_.”

Cisco rolls his eyes and takes another sip.

“And he was mad with power,” Jesse adds.

“Oh but Jesse, we can’t possibly rate that worse than _guyliner_ ,” Harry says. 

“He thought was a badass in his leather and top knot and makeup. Oh, and he talked _like this_.” Cisco pitches his voice low in his gravest imitation. “ _We can be Gods,_ _Francisco_.” 

“What is it with villains call themselves Gods, anyway?” Barry wonders.

“You called yourself Francisco?” Caitlin asks. 

“Yes. It was so creepy! He was so creepy. And evil. And kind of gay.”

A distinct silence ruptures the easy ebb of conversation. Cisco doesn’t place it immediately, taking another drink. When he puts his drink down to reach for another plateful of noodles, he becomes aware of the round gazes on him. 

“Did someone else have dibs?” he asks slowly. 

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Barry suddenly says. The gazes turn to him, for which Cisco is grateful. Barry gestures with vibrating hands. “The evil. And kind of gay. That’s Buffy.” 

“Oh, nice looking out. Referencing a reference I didn’t even realize I was referencing. Outstanding.” Cisco leans across the table, clumsy and uncoordinated, to bump Barry’s fist. He ends up sloppily slapping their fingers together.

“I don’t think you mentioned that before,” Caitlin says. Her eyes are narrow. “Hmm. No. Nope. Nothing about the kind of gay thing.” 

“How did _that_ come up?” Jesse asks, managing to look entirely innocent as she rests her chin on her fist.

“ _When_ did that come up?” Barry adds. “I thought you said the whole fight was only a few minutes.” 

“Guy was not a smooth operator. He did not understand the concept of slow burn.” 

“That’s still not an explanation,” Jesse points out.

Harry clears his throat. “I don’t think Cisco feels comfortable talking about his Earth 2 self.” 

Cisco doesn’t, really, but it’s clearly making Harry _uncomfortable_ , which is one of Cisco’s favorite hobbies. He’s warm enough with liquor that the memory of his other self doesn’t shiver his spine the way it normally does. Harry is avoiding his eyes, preoccupied suddenly with the drink in front of him. Cisco can’t resist. 

“It actually feels good to talk about it,” Cisco says as seriously as he can. Harry’s fingers tighten around his glass. Cisco coughs to hide his grin. “When Reverb was trying to convince me to join our powers, take down Zoom and rule Central City, he was totally leering at me.”

Harry rolls his eyes. “ _Leering_.” 

“He was! He was _undressing me with his eyes_. Also.” Cisco pauses for dramatic effect. “He kissed me.”

Barry and Caitlin half choke on their drink. Jesse leans in even further, eyes wide and bright. Cisco glances at Harry, who barely reacts at all. He frowns. That’s no fun. 

“He did _not_ kiss you,” Harry says.

“Okay. No,” Cisco admits. Jesse sighs in disappointment and slumps in her seat. Harry spares her a glance. “But he totally would have. There was this point that he did the scary walking thing – ” 

“The scary walking thing,” Harry deadpans.

Caitlin waves her hands. “Oh, the thing. Where they take a step forward and you take a step back because they’re all, grr, but they take another step forward and then you’re all cornered and intimidated and it’s super scary.”

“Exactly,” Cisco says.

“That’s not a thing,” Harry argues.

“You do that thing,” Cisco points out.

Harry looks offended. “I’ve never done that thing.”

“You’ve done that thing to _me."_

“That does sound like a thing you would do, Dad.”

“Can we get back to the kissing?" Caitlin asks.

“If people don’t keep _interrupting_ , then yes.” Cisco glares at Harry, who doesn’t even have the decency to look sorry. Cisco, undeterred, continues. “ _Anyway_. Evil me was doing the scary walking thing, and before I know it he’s got me pinned against a wall with his _I’m a badass who can rip people apart with my mind_ thing going on. Then he leaned in really, really close. And intense. Creepy intense, like full on Edward Cullen, so into me he wants to eat me, and says, _Vibe, you have no idea what we can do together_.” 

Everyone has been drawn towards him, leaning drunken – besides Barry – over the table, enraptured. Cisco feels pleasantly hot and smug as he settles back into his chair. He glances at Harry, whose face is neutral other than the clenched jaw. Cisco grins because that is the look of a Very Irritated Harrison Wells. A look of triumph.

“That’s not necessarily gay though,” Barry argues. “Just intense. Trust me, villains get very intense. It’s all the hate. And how tight their suits are, I think. But it’s not sexual.” 

“Did I mention he was looking my mouth the entire time?” 

“You did not,” Jesse says, stirring, interest renewed. “And when you say close, how close do you mean?”

“This is stupid,” Harry says. “You’re actually expecting us to believe that your doppelganger, as you call him, had a crush on you? That’s a level of self-delusion and egotism that is, frankly, astounding.”

Cisco glares. Emboldened by Caitlin’s cocktail – that must seriously be 3,000% proof – and by the thrum of annoying Harry Wells, Cisco stands. He moves with what couldn’t exactly be described as grace until he’s standing at Harry’s side. Everyone is watching him with rapt, bright eyed interest. Harry is staring straight ahead. It works in Cisco’s favor. 

He leans in, curling his hands around Harry’s chair, stopping until he’s only a few inches from Harry’s face. Harry must feel Cisco’s breath fanning his cheek. Cisco’s hair falls from behind his ear and he knows the ends must be brushing the hint of Harry’s exposed collarbone. Harry is perfectly, suspiciously still. Cisco’s already won.

Pitching his voice to the same throaty Batman impression Reverb had adopted, allowing his accent to thicken his words, Cisco breathes, “ _Harry. You have no idea what we can do together._ ” 

There’s a sharp crack, startling Cisco to stand straight. It takes him a moment to look down, but when he does, his eyes go wide. Harry squeezed his glass so hard it broke. 

“Now that,” Caitlin slurs with a breathy giggle. “Was kind of gay.”

-

The next morning, Cisco’s body feels cotton dry and fuzzy. Everything aches dull and mottled and yellow. His _hair_ hurts.

Luckily Caitlin and Harry are in the same miserable, nauseous boat he is. They’re all mostly useless in the lab and wince in tandem when Jesse speaks to them, cheerful and purposefully loud, and pretty much give up on life when Barry bounds in, un-hungover and full of stupid superhero energy. 

“So I’m guessing we’re not letting Caitlin make the cocktails anymore?” Barry teases. 

Jesse has left to fetch food and caffeine. Caitlin is pretending to work on a new compound in her lab but Cisco can hear her light snores. Harry is in his workshop – meaning _Cisco’s_ workshop, because there are only 500 empty workspaces in S.T.A.R. Labs – doing Cisco doesn’t know what.

“I wish vibing kept me from getting drunk,” Cisco groans, dropping his head on his forearm. 

“No you don’t.” Barry, settled on top of the table, pats Cisco sympathetically on the head. “How much of last night do you remember?”

Everything, Cisco is pretty sure. Unfortunately. He turns his cheek on his arm and stares at Barry’s annoyingly bright face. “Are you referring to anything in particular?”

Barry shrugs, but his smile is full of cheek.

“ _What_ , Barry? My freaking fingernails are hungover. I can’t brain enough for this right now.”

“Do you remember talking about Reverb?”

Cisco groans. He remembers talking about how Reverb was definitely vibing on him, pun intended, and how sharply the boasting of his trauma got under Harry's skin. 

“I was thinking,” Barry continues, undaunted by Cisco’s pitiful noise of shame and pain. “How you were talking about how powerful Reverb said he was. And how much Jesse and Harry seemed to know about his powers.” 

“Are you getting close to a point, man? Because I would like to crawl into a hole that is very dark sometime soon.” 

“I think you should ask Harry to train you.”

“Hmm,” Cisco says into his arm. He pretends to consider it. “Yeah, that’s a great idea.” 

“Really?”

“Except for how it’s _awful_.”

Barry frowns, hurt, and Cisco sags guilty on the table.

“Sorry man. But I don’t know how into training Reverb 2.0 Harry is going to be, considering that one, there’s not the pressing danger of the multiverse ending and two, Reverb 1.0 was part of the team that held his daughter hostage.” 

“He’s helped you before. Besides, the multiverse is in danger. Or is probably in danger. I’m sure our Earth is in danger from something we haven’t realized yet.”

He has a point. 

“You haven’t really been doing much to train,” Barry says softly. “Since we stopped Zoom. I know it’s kind of difficult to train just with me considering I don’t know the full potential of your power any more than you do." 

“Yeah,” Cisco mumbles.

“Is that the only reason?” Barry asks. He must know the answer. “Cisco.” 

“I know I’m not Reverb,” Cisco says. “I know that even though Dr. Wells – _Eobard_ – is responsible for my powers, I’m not anything like him. I don’t have to use them for the kind of destruction he or Reverb wanted.”

“But?” 

“ _But_ … sometimes it still feels wrong to use my powers. Or impossible to be able to use them for good. It seems like half the time I try to do something – build the cold gun, for instance – it backfires and ends up helping the bad guys. I don’t want these powers to be another thing your enemies can use to hurt you.”

Barry leans over to grip his shoulder, warm and gentle. “Hey. They’re _our_ enemies. We’re a team, remember?”

Cisco smiles.

-

When they’re finished with lunch, Barry and Caitlin give Jesse the full run down of the Flash suit. Cisco watches them before moving to the desk Harry is currently working at. He leans back, trying to appear casual.

“Ramon,” Harry says, more crisp than usual. “You’re standing in front of the pliers.” 

“How much do you know about Reverb?”

Harry’s fingers fumble with the material in his hands.

“What are you working on?” Cisco asks, distracted. 

“Portable energy accelerator,” Harry snaps. “I don’t know if Reverb was gay.”

“Cool – what? I’m not – hey, that’s not what I was asking. Wow. Mind in the gutter much?” 

“ _I_ _f_   you have a point I suggest you get to it, Ramon."

“I meant, how much do you know about Reverb’s powers? Not his Kinsey number. Which I’m guessing was pretty high, considering how close he was to jumping my bones within five minutes of meeting me. Not that I can blame him. I do have that effect on people.”

Harry pinches the bridge between his nose.

“I just wanted to know if you knew anything else he could do,” Cisco explains. “If you thought I had all of the same powers or could, I don’t know, tap into something different. Or greater.”

Harry doesn’t say anything in response and Cisco tenses. He knew it was a bad idea, but when Barry really talked it up, he got a thrill of hope. A ray that broke through the dark origins and uses of his powers, offering a brighter future.

“Reverb said he thought we could take Zoom down ourselves,” Cisco says. “I mean, Zoom did reach into his chest and stop his heart like five minutes later, so he might’ve been proven wrong on that particular theory, but I think there must’ve been something to him thinking that. He was arrogant but he wasn’t stupid.”

Tense, Harry puts down the screwdriver and the accelerator. He pauses a heavy moment before looking to meet Cisco’s eyes.

“You never said that’s how Zoom killed Reverb,” Harry says, firm as usual but in a softer tone. Cisco wonders if he’s trying to sound comforting. “The same way Eobard Thawne killed you in the timeline Barry changed.”

“Yeah, well. It was super nice and traumatic and apparently how I die in every universe, so I didn’t think I’d mention it.”

“Sorry.” Harry sounds like he means it.

Cisco stands straighter at the apology, suddenly sheepish. “It’s okay,” he assures. “Nothing like watching yourself die horribly to remind you to live each day to the fullest.”

“That wasn’t you, though. Reverb wasn’t you. He may have had your face and your powers – ”

“And my banging body.”

“ – but he wasn’t you,” Harry finishes, exasperated. “He didn’t have Barry Allen on his side, or this stronger version of Snow, or Joe.”

“Or you,” Cisco says without thinking. “I do have you, right?” Harry’s jaw twitches, but there’s no bite in the tick. Heat bites Cisco’s cheeks and he holds his hands up, nerves pulling chilly but full of energy in his stomach. “I mean, on my side.”

“Yes, Ramon. You have me on your side.”

“So you’ll help me?”

Harry glances behind them to his daughter, laughing with Caitlin and Barry. She looks light and happy, at ease, bright as a girl her age should shine.

"I can help you find the full potential of your powers.” 

Cisco beams. Teasingly, he leans in, dropping into his Reverb tone to diffuse the serious warmth of the moment. “ _Thank you, Harry_.”

“Don’t.” Harry holds up one finger. “No Reverb voice.”

“What part turns you on more?” Cisco wonders aloud, pushing his luck, because it’s too easy and too much fun to mess with Harry like this. It almost makes his run with Evil Cisco worth it to see Harry squirm. “The Spanish accent, or the fact that my voice can get so manly and low?”

“If you want me to help you, then our discussions of Reverb remain purely professional. We’re not researching his… sexual preferences.”

The last words are rushed. Harry is more flustered than Cisco’s ever seen him. The idea of leaving this particular button alone is almost painful, but the idea of being unprepared when the next evil they face bears down on them is unbearable.

“Fine,” Cisco pouts. Harry offers a tight smile. Unable to resist one more press, Cisco adds, “Even though it was clear what he preferred, sexually speaking. There’s really nothing that needs investigating. Trust me. I know when someone wants me.”

Harry clears this throat, sudden, as if he’s choking on air. Cisco pats his shoulders but is quickly waved away.

“Dad?”

Cisco glances up to see Jesse, along with Caitlin and Barry, watching them.

“I’m fine,” Harry says around a small cough. “Fine.”

“All good here,” Cisco says, overly bright. He claps Harry on the shoulder again. “So. Training?”

Harry is tense under his hand. Cisco frowns, releasing his grip. “Sorry. I’m done messing with you about Reverb, okay? No more. From now on I’m all serious, all training, all the time.”

“Excellent. Now either move or hand me the pliers. Once I’m finished with this, we can start pulling my files on Reverb. I brought all of my information on Zoom and his associates.”

“Awesome.” Cisco grabs the pliers and holds them out. Harry takes them, carefully, as if he’s avoiding touching Cisco’s fingers on purpose. It makes Cisco still, feel out of place. There is a sudden heaviness of guilt in his gut. “And thanks. Really. My powers are hard to trust, after everything that’s happened. But knowing I have you believe in me, willing to help me – that means a lot, you know?” 

It isn’t until he articulates the sentiment aloud that he feels the truth of the words. He wants to reach out to Harry again, touch Harry’s shoulder and convince him through the warmth of touch that Cisco is sincere. Harry looks uncomfortable enough, though, in a way that is more endearing than fun, so Cisco keeps his hands to himself.

“Just let me know when you’re ready to work, okay?”

Harry doesn’t answer, offering only a curt nod before turning his attention back to the project at hand. Cisco rocks on his heels for a moment before joining the rest of his team.

“Everything go alright?” Barry asks, glancing at Harry.

“Yeah. He’s going help me get a handle on my Reverb powers.”

“You’re going to work with my dad?”

“He’s already been working with your dad,” Caitlin says. “I mean, we all have.”

“Yeah. This’ll just be a little more one on one.” Barry and Jesse share A Look, speaking some language Cisco isn’t quite fluent in. “What?”

“Nothing,” they both say, too quickly, and smile.

Cisco looks at them, then looks to the back of Harry’s neck, bent and tense in concentration. “Okay,” he says slowly. “Fine. Be weirdos and don’t share whatever secret secrets you guys have.”

“It’s really nothing,” Jesse insists. “Just. Be careful with him?”

“I promise, I won’t hurt your dad.”

Jesse smiles. “I don’t think you will, Cisco.”

“Ready,” Harry says suddenly. He brings the small ring to them, handing it to Barry briskly. Cisco wants to take a look at the project, oh and aw with the rest of them, but Harry moves to stand at his side. His hands are behind his back and his expression is blank. “Shall we, Ramon?”

Cisco decides he can look at the accelerator at any time. “Lead the way,” he says, and follows Harry to his space.


End file.
